The Sullivans were with us for 6 days and unfortunately, we didn't have the best weather. Actually it was pretty crummy, but they were great sports about it and thankfully the water was still warm, so we could at least be in the water skiing and playing. But by Saturday, the high was in the upper 50s and the forecast showed rain all day. So on Friday night, we decided that we would get up early and head over to Minocqua--another northwoods resort town about 40 min away.
We were most looking forward to taking Ryan to Paul Bunyan's Cook Shanty for a traditional logger's breakfast--all you can eat breakfast served family style!
(these are the faces you get when you've taken just shy of 500 pictures in an attempt to get 6 kids smiling at the same time)
Do you think Wyatt liked the homemade donuts?
We were trying to get a picture of the donuts before the kids dove in--can you see the patience in their faces wearing thin? They had been waiting over an hour since they woke up for this moment...
We came, we saw, we conquered
(Where's Wyatt?)
Oh there he is...hanging on Paul's blue ox....
and you gotta love Wheaton with his new gun...just hangin' out
Think the sign is big enough?
And apparently we got there just in time...check out the line when we left!
After breakfast, we walked through downtown Minocqua and stumbled upon an antique car/boat show
A true 'woody wagon'
This was one of those boat cars they made long ago...you can see the propellers underneath and the seats doubled as flotation devices. Clearly this idea never really took off, but it's consistent with my theory that you can't do multiple things really well---you gotta pick one thing and strive for excellence (Old Country Buffet is a perfect example of this---when you serve chinese food, southern food, breakfast food, etc. it all tastes the same and none of it tastes like its supposed to!)
What a fun group of kids!
Wyatt loved this one--it reminded him of Finn McMissile from CARS2
As we were walking around, two grandpa-aged gentlemen asked Sadie and Elle if they wanted to help them sell t-shirts to raise money for Muscular Dystrophy Research. They offered the girls two free shirts in exchange for their efforts and the girls were all over that! They proceeded to walk through the crowds, asking everyone in a very polite and respectful manner if they wanted to buy the shirts they were wearing and then directed them over to the tshirt tent.
Trying to make a sale...
This was their approach--Sadie did most of the talking and Elle did the modeling
I believe this guy actually bought one!
How could he refuse these two sweet girls?
Their hoodies actually matched the shirts quite well and with their matching hairdos and sandals, they looked quite official!
On our way back to Stormy Lake, we had to stop and buy a new dishwasher as the one in our cabin broke the day before. The appliances were almost 20 years old so I guess it's not surprising, but not exactly what you want to spend your evening doing! Thankfully Ryan had done this before, so he and Matt were hard at work for the majority of the rest of the day. It actually wouldn't have been too tough, except that things in a cabin are never done the way you would expect them to be done so there were several trips to the hardware store. But they got it done and it made for a memorable end to the Sullivan's time at our house!
A few pictures from the next morning before they headed home....these girls had been hiding up in the bunk room in hopes that we wouldn't find them and Elle wouldn't have to leave....it was so precious!
You wouldn't know it was the end of July by these pictures! But we still had such a great time!
